70 years of human rights in global health: drawing on a contentious past to secure a hopeful future

Gostin, Lawrence O.; Meier, Benjamin Mason; Thomas, Rebekah; Magar, Veronica; Ghebreyesus, Tedros Adhanom

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32997-0

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 16 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…7 It strives to realise the universal right to health, grounded in international human rights. 8 Law is a key determinant of health. By law, we mean the statutes, regulations, and rules that express public policy.…”

Section: Law and Global Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Commission views law and health as mutually reinforcing, and urges the legal and health communities to work cooperatively toward a common goal of "global health with justice". 8 Working together, law reform should afford people "a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible". 11 Law reform should also seek to eliminate the "systematic and potentially remediable differences in one or more aspects of health across socially, demographically, or geographically defined popu lations or population subgroups," 12 as well as inequalities or differences in health that are "avoidable, unfair or [which stem] from some form of injustice".…”

Section: Approach and Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…121 The WHO views UHC as among its highest priorities. 8,117,[122][123][124][125] In 2005, the 58th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted a resolution for sustainable health financing, universal coverage, and social health insurance, calling on countries to plan for the transition to UHC. 126 Since then, UHC has become a global priority and a central element of WHO's efforts to strengthen health systems and improve the quality and distribution of health and health services.…”

Section: Case Study: Law As a Tool To Achieve Uhc Uhc As A Crucial Comentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Law and Global Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Approach and Aimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case Study: Law As a Tool To Achieve Uhc Uhc As A Crucial Comentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The modern concept of health as a human right dates from the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization and the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The right to health first appeared in an international treaty in the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 The modern concept of health as a human right dates from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966. 12,13 In this paper, we describe some implications of a human rightsbased approach to the obesity pandemic for actions by States and civil society. Unlike infectious agents such as the Ebola virus, risk factors for obesity are often framed as matters of personal responsibility rather than matters of urgent public concern warranting strong government intervention.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying a human rights–based approach to obesity for States and civil society

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Obesity and its comorbidities pose daunting challenges to global health and development in the 21st century. This paper reviews some commonalities between obesity and another global health challenge, the pandemic of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). International human rights law was an important catalyst for civil society movements that helped to overcome inertia and generate political will for State action in response to HIV and AIDS. Drawing on the HIV experience, the authors propose a conceptual model for a human rights–based response to obesity founded on the twin pillars of State obligations and civil society engagement. Framing States' obligations to address the global obesity pandemic as a matter of international law, informed by the examples of the United Nations “International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights” and the General Comments of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies on HIV and AIDS, provides a normative framework to guide State actions and opportunities to engage the extensive accountability mechanisms of the United Nations international human rights system. In addition, it provides civil society organizations with the language and tools to demand State action on obesity. The authors call for similar authoritative guidance for States on the application of international human rights law to obesity.

show abstract

Foundations of global health & human rights Edited by Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier Oxford University Press, 2020, 504 pp. ISBN: 9780197528297.

Onarheim

2021

World Med & Health Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As a scholar and medical doctor who teaches global health, including human rights, I opened Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights with curiosity, hoping to find an educational resource relevant to my own work, and that of students, researchers, advocates, policymakers, and other global health practitioners. The edited volume offers a convincing and in-depth analysis of the interconnected and synergistic relationships between global health and human rights."Health is a human right" is a noble and increasingly popular slogan (Ghebreyesus, 2018). But what does this mean in practice? Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier's book answers this question.The book outlines norms and principles underlying human rights (Section 1) and how the right to health can be operationalized and implemented through international law (Section 2). Transcending jargon and theory alone, descriptions of contemporary applications (Section 3) and challenges and threats to human rights (Section 4) show what realizing the right to health entails. In casting health as a human right, the authors leverage how international human rights are means to promote legal accountability and define what governments must do to fulfill the right to health. This is a timely, interdisciplinary, and forward-looking edited volume, which provides a historic backdrop to the field. Contemporary scholars and practitioners address issues ranging from sexual and reproductive health and rights to global health and human rights in the age of populism. With a clear and repeated call for global justice through human rights, the text encourages student engagement and advocacy. The field of global health and human rights has advanced considerably within the past few decades (Gostin et al., 2019), but this is one of the first books to provide a foundational introduction to students. Unlike some of the other books on human rights and health that I have come across, the content is easy to understand. Each chapter builds upon the previous one and the text is supported by interesting examples and engaging questions. The logically structured 18 chapters make complex concepts and applications associated with different actors and organizations involved with human rights in global health apprehensible. Further, the well-written case studies and theoretical analysis are excellent points of reference to academics and practitioners within the field of global health and human rights alike.The foundational volume draws upon insights and expertise from 36 leading global health and human rights scholars, which are primarily based in high-income settings. How similar-or different-are their perspectives from views of human rights scholars and frontline human rights defenders in other contexts? The overrepresentation of contributorsThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

show abstract

70 years of human rights in global health: drawing on a contentious past to secure a hopeful future

Cited by 31 publications

References 16 publications

The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development

The legal determinants of health: harnessing the power of law for global health and sustainable development

Identifying a human rights–based approach to obesity for States and civil society

Foundations of global health & human rights Edited by Lawrence O. Gostin and Benjamin Mason Meier Oxford University Press, 2020, 504 pp. ISBN: 9780197528297.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About